Basics
- Puget Sound Indicator Name
- Floodplains habitat restoration
- Progress Indicator
- Acre (acres)
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- Topics
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No Reporter Selected
- Contributing Partners
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- Last Updated
- 9/14/2023 2:48:27 PM
Map
Description
Acres of floodplain habitat (inclusive of riparian, estuarine/nearshore, and non-tidal floodplains) improved through restoration activities
Progress Indicator Chart
No reported data available
Accelerating restoration and acquisition efforts in floodplains is a key strategy for Puget Sound recovery. Floodplains provide invaluable ecosystem services including critical habitat for many plants and animals including Pacific salmon, protection from damaging floods, and improvements to water quality. They also support human health and well-being through recreational opportunities and economically valuable farmlands. Climate change and population growth and development pressure continue to modify floodplains.
This Progress Indicator tracks the cumulative acreage protected and restored by funded, in-progress, and completed Lead Entity restoration projects across Puget Sound. Lead entities are local, citizen-based, organizations that coordinate salmon recovery efforts in their local watersheds. Lead entities work with local and state agencies, tribes, citizens, and other community groups to ensure that salmon recovery actions, including habitat restoration efforts, are implemented.
The data collected for this Progress Indicator illustrate progress in accelerating funding and implementation of floodplain restoration projects.
This Progress Indicator is in development.
Key Progress Indicator Results
This Progress Indicator is in development.
Methods
- Monitoring Program
- Data Source
Project lists as reported in Salmon Recovery Portal that include metrics with estimated acreages for a range of restoration activities across projects. These acreages are summed to quantify total acres improved in floodplain areas through restoration.
- Critical Definitions
Floodplains: the floodplain extent represents the historic or geomorphic floodplain boundary. This covers the relatively level surface extending laterally from the river channel edge (Beechie et al. 2017). Within each river, the floodplain includes the upland freshwater as well as brackish estuarine, pocket estuarine, nearshore, and delta areas.
*NOTE: PSP defines floodplain as inclusive of freshwater floodplain, estuarine, and riparian areas. We apply this definition across all PSP indicator programs, based on past workshops with LEs, Tribes, and local practitioners to develop other floodplain indicators.
Estuary/nearshore:
- Estuary: tidally influenced areas where fresh and marine waters mix, including protected embayments (modified from PCSRF Data Dictionary 2013 and Encyclopedia of Puget Sound).
- Nearshore: marine riparian, beaches, and shallow water environments of Puget Sound estuarine and marine shoreline areas representing the aquatic boundary between freshwater, air, land, and the open marine waters of Puget Sound (Nearshore Science Team 2003).
Riparian: freshwater areas above the ordinary high-water mark of the stream and within the floodplain of the stream/waterbody (PCSRF Data Dictionary 2013).
Interpretation of Results
Datasets
No datasets uploaded.
Reporting Guidance
- Reporting Instructions
Subcategories
No Subcategories for this Puget Sound Indicator.